07 December 2023

NoName057(16) new campaign against Germany, France and Italy

According to a report dated 21 February, the pro-Russian hacktivist group NoName057(16) has launched a campaign of DDoS cyber attacks against France, Germany and Italy, claimed since 9am and further defined in their various communications posted on their Telegram channel. The victims are located in different countries with a prevalence of targeted organisations in the defence sector. Please find below the victims claimed by country for the DDoS attacks that has been launched:

In France: the first victim is the website of the French defence industrial group "Naval Group" (https://www.naval-group.com/), which was unavailable from Austria, parts of Russia, Israel, and parts of the US on 21 February at 2pm. The second victim is the " travail-emploi.gouv.fr" website (https://www.intefp.travail-emploi.gouv.fr/), which was not accessible from most parts of the world on 21 February at 2pm. The third victim is the website of the "Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales" (https://cnes.fr/) and its sub-domain (https://angels.cnes.fr/), which was not accessible from most parts of the world on 21 February at 2pm. The fourth victim is the “data.gouv.fr” website (https://sorry.data.gouv.fr/), which is unavailable from most parts of the world on 21 February at 4:30pm.

In Italy: the victims are the portal of the Italian Armed Forces (https://www.esercito.difesa.it/), which was not accessible from Austria, the German region of Frankfurt, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States on 21 February at 2 p.m.

In Germany: The victims are the website of the German defence industrial company "MBDA Deutschland GmbH" (https://www.mbda-systems.com/), which was accessible from most parts of the world on 21 February at 2pm, and the website of the German "Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure" (https://bmdv.bund.de/DE/Home/home.html), which was accessible from most parts of the world on 21 February at 2pm.

It is likely that these attacks were politically motivated, with the possible trigger being, for Italy, the visit of President Giorgia Meloni to Ukraine and, for France and Germany, the sending of military equipment to Ukraine.